Post by dave on Feb 26, 2013 8:46:44 GMT -5
Bz, you're not alone in your thinking. Otherwise the State would be empty. However, some have had a different experience with moving. I think you're right, no one moves only because of taxes. Most people leave for a variety of reasons. I'd thought of leaving NY before, but doubted I'd ever get around to it. And then all the stars seemed to line up and I knew it was what we should do. Mrs. Dave, of course, was ready. She's a go-er while I'm a homebody.
We're quite happy down here. I miss some aspects of our life up north, but not New York per se.
As I mentioned above, there's a soft spot in my heart for the Utica I remember, but what I remember no longer exists for me. Also, I'm used to living in places where I don't have any roots that go back to prior generations. Mrs. Dave and I left our home towns soon after high school (we met in Manhattan) and we have often wondered what it would have been like to have stayed in our home towns and grown old. At my 50th high school reunion two years ago an address list showed that quite a few of my classmates still lived in Utica, some even in their childhood neighborhoods. But except for a few old friends, I would say being aware of the lives of everyone in my fourth grade class doesn't hold much attraction for me.
The great thing about life in America is that we can go anywhere we want. Although I'm not sure I can ever go "home."
I had a dream after that reunion where I found myself in a field standing around a table with a mixture of people from my past. It was a large table and some of the folks were little kids I remembered from elementary school, some were from my high school and 2 or 3 were from a close neighborhood we lived in as a young couple. In any case, we were all young. On some sort of cue, I guess, we all turned away from the table and walked away as far as we could. I remember climbing a hill, at times holding on to tufts of long grass to pull my self up. I turned aroundonce in a while and looked backward. At first I could see the others pursuing their paths, it seemed. Eventually all I could see when I turned to look was that table sitting in the middle of a meadow. No one was there. It was empty. But that was true the moment we all left. I've never been sure what the dream was supposed to mean to me, but the feeling I had when I woke up was "everything is as it should be."
We're quite happy down here. I miss some aspects of our life up north, but not New York per se.
As I mentioned above, there's a soft spot in my heart for the Utica I remember, but what I remember no longer exists for me. Also, I'm used to living in places where I don't have any roots that go back to prior generations. Mrs. Dave and I left our home towns soon after high school (we met in Manhattan) and we have often wondered what it would have been like to have stayed in our home towns and grown old. At my 50th high school reunion two years ago an address list showed that quite a few of my classmates still lived in Utica, some even in their childhood neighborhoods. But except for a few old friends, I would say being aware of the lives of everyone in my fourth grade class doesn't hold much attraction for me.
The great thing about life in America is that we can go anywhere we want. Although I'm not sure I can ever go "home."
I had a dream after that reunion where I found myself in a field standing around a table with a mixture of people from my past. It was a large table and some of the folks were little kids I remembered from elementary school, some were from my high school and 2 or 3 were from a close neighborhood we lived in as a young couple. In any case, we were all young. On some sort of cue, I guess, we all turned away from the table and walked away as far as we could. I remember climbing a hill, at times holding on to tufts of long grass to pull my self up. I turned aroundonce in a while and looked backward. At first I could see the others pursuing their paths, it seemed. Eventually all I could see when I turned to look was that table sitting in the middle of a meadow. No one was there. It was empty. But that was true the moment we all left. I've never been sure what the dream was supposed to mean to me, but the feeling I had when I woke up was "everything is as it should be."